Can Those Who Love The Boy Protect Him In Time?

February 29, 2000|By Bob Greene.

So where -- with Joseph Grad scheduled to be released early from prison in Westville, Ind., on March 11 -- is the boy he tortured?

Where is Grad's son -- the boy Grad chained repeatedly in a tiny closet for 24 hours at a time, the boy upon whom he urinated, the boy whose face and mouth were rubbed with excrement by Carmen Grad, Joseph Grad's wife?

The boy is living in what by all accounts is a good, loving foster home -- "He has stability for the first time in his life," according to a relative. Were Joseph Grad not being released from prison less than a year and a half into a 4- year sentence, the child could feel secure and protected as he goes to school and tries to heal.

But that is not to be. Late last week, his principal and teachers were notified that Joseph Grad is being released; so were the police in the town where the child is living, and the driver of the boy's school bus. His foster parents have decided not to let him outside by himself. State social services officials are scrambling to figure out ways to make certain the boy is safe.

They are doing this only after we informed the foster parents that Grad is being released -- something that state officials in Indiana failed to do. Katherine Purtee, the Marshall County caseworker assigned to look out for the child, did not let the child's foster family know; in fact, she gave them false information, telling them they did not have to worry because Grad would not be out until June. Mary Lou Connolly, a private attorney in Marshall County being paid with state tax money to represent the boy's interests, did not tell the foster family; when we spoke with Connolly she told us to trust that matters with the boy were fine, but when we asked her when the last time was that she had seen her young client, she conceded that she had not seen him in months.

Marshall County children's services workers have consistently said that regulations prohibit them from discussing their decisions about the boy -- "for his protection."

His protection? They didn't even inform the people with whom he lives that the man who tortured him is about to walk out of prison. We have known for many months where the boy is living, and of course we have no intention of printing that information. But he is somewhere that, as everyone involved with the case is aware, Joseph Grad will be able to find out about very quickly, should he so choose.

That is why James Hmurovich, director of the Indiana Division of Family and Children, told us he was grateful that we had let the foster family know that Grad is being released; Hmurovich said that even after talking to his caseworkers in Marshall County, he could not come up with an acceptable explanation for why the state employees entrusted to protect the child did not know about Grad's imminent release -- and in fact were providing the foster family with false information.

Late last March, the governor of Indiana, Frank O'Bannon -- saying that he was "appalled" by what we had reported here about the torture of the boy -- vowed to personally step in to make certain that the boy "is living in a loving, nurturing, safe environment."

Perhaps Gov. O'Bannon would be interested in knowing that early last June -- after someone called child protective services workers to say the boy was in trouble -- the child was taken to the safe foster home where he now lives. According to one of the boy's relatives, he "was so badly infested with lice, and [had so many] sores from scratching and infestation, that [the foster mother] had to shave [the boy's] head and boil [his] clothing."

This is how the boy was living a full two months after the governor of Indiana pledged that the state would do its very best to look after the child. It wasn't that the caseworkers didn't know; we had reported that he was living with the biological mother who had abandoned him in the first place, the woman who had left him with Joseph Grad. As we reported last March, that woman -- when interviewed by police -- could not even remember her own address or telephone number.

But Marshall County caseworkers told a judge that this was where the boy belonged. They told that to their supervisors at state headquarters, who passed it on to the governor's office. Now they concede that they were wrong.

And Joseph Grad is on his way out. How angry is he at the boy who told the truth, and who helped send him to prison? We will report Wednesday.